1. Technical Field
This invention relates generally to electrostatographic image recorders such as printers and copiers.
2. Background Art
Multicolor image recorders using electrostatographic processes are known. Most are complex and quite expensive due to their feature-rich design. However, many so called "personal" printer applications do not require the majority of the available features, as many users are more interested in having a small, lightweight printer that is reliable, inexpensive, compact, simple to operate, easy to equip with toner and other consumables, and which produces little waste.
Accordingly, there is a need for a small, reliable color image recorder that is nonetheless capable of producing good quality color pages at low cost.
Electrostatographic image recorders are known with exposure printheads having a long array of individually addressable and energizable point-like sources which extend across the full width of an electrostatic image receiver. The array may consist of a plurality of styli or radiation sources such as LEDs. Such long arrays are very expensive relative to the total price of many personal printers.
Many commercially available color personal printers are equipped with toner or ink supplies that contain a plurality of colors in a single unit. When one color has been exhausted, the user is presented only with the option of either (1) doing without that color until the other colors are used up or (2) replacing the unit and wasting the unused toner or ink.